Shooters Aishwary, Samra disappoint as little-known Rameshbhai clinches silver

Leading Indian rifle shooters Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar and Sift Kaur Samra failed to make an impact even as little-known Smit Rameshbhai Moradiya clinched the men's 10m air rifle silver after an extremely close fight for gold in the World University Shooting Championship here on Monday.

On a day when Rameshbhai was the only Indian to win a medal, his more illustrious counterpart, Olympian Tomar finished fifth in the event, while Samra, a member of the Paris Games contingent, ended at fourth in the women's 50m rifle three-positions event.

Rameshbhai, who hails from Gujarat, missed the gold medal to Czech Republic's Jiri Privratsky by just 0.1 point, scoring 252.1 in the final. It was a grand double for Privratsky, who shot 252.2 to claim the top-podium finish and add to the men's 50m rifle three-positions gold he won on Sunday.

The 23-year-old Privratsky had recently clinched a silver (50m rifle 3-positions) and bronze (10m air rifle) in the year-ending ISSF World Cup Final held at the Karni Singh Range here last month. Tomar shot 187.7 for a fifth-place finish, while another Indian, Umamahesh Maddineni (208.8), finished fourth.

Earlier, in the qualification round, Rameshbhai shot 630.0 to enter the eight-shooter final in second place. Umamahesh and Tomar shot 629.8 and 628.3 to enter the final in third and fifth place respectively.

Samra, one of the best 50m rifle exponents in the country, was a big disappointment, finishing fourth with 439.6. France's Agathe Girard (462.3) won the gold medal, while Poland's Julia Piotrowska (462.0) and Anna Janssen (450.2) clinched the silver and bronze respectively.

Samra had earlier secured a place in the eight-shooter final at seventh in the qualification round with a score of 587. India have so far won nine medals, including a gold struck by the 10m air pistol mixed team of Palak Gulia and Amit Sharma on Sunday. As many as 220 shooters from across 23 countries are competing in the championship. The event is being hosted by Manav Rachna International Institute of Research and Studies.